Editor’s Introductory Note: This article was originally published on Ammo.com, and is reposted with permission. This is the concluding continuation of Part 1, which was posted in SurvivalBlog on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.
Prison Guard Unions and Private Prisons Lobbying Elected Officials
Anywhere government money is being spent or the state is picking winners and losers, there you will find lobbying. Like the military-industrial complex, private prisons are no exception to this rule. The two largest private prison corporations have put more than $10 million into electing favorable candidates since 1989, and more than $25 million into lobbying.
Marco Rubio is an excellent example of the power of the private prison lobby. He has very close ties to the GEO Group, the second-largest for-profit prison company in the United States. GEO was the recipient of a state contract for a $110 million prison during Rubio’s tenure as the Speaker of the House in Florida. This right after Rubio hired an economic consultant with close ties to the company, which has donated nearly $40,000 to his various political campaigns as of 2015. This makes him the politician with the closest financial relationship to the private prisons industry.
The private incarceration industry has stepped up their lobbying game during the Trump Administration, with the GEO Group spending $1.3 million on lobbying between January and September 2017. That topped the total from the previous year, which was $1 million.
The timing of the increase in lobbying funds is worth considering. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was looking to build five new detention centers at the time. Unsurprisingly, companies started lobbying hard to be the ones to build and operate these new facilities. That’s over 54,000 beds. What’s more, ICE is the number-one customer for the GEO Group, which is based in Florida.
Rubio is hardly the only politician to receive funding from private prison companies – which claim to never attempt to influence policy in any way other than trying to get contracts for private prison operation. Chuck Schumer has received over $100,000 in donations from both the GEO Group and CCA.
While private prison operations companies claim they do not attempt to influence public policy beyond trying to get those lucrative contracts, the same cannot be said for prison guard unions. The California prison guards union spent $100,000 in 1994 trying to get the three strikes law passed. This was the first of its kind, but quickly became the gold standard across the nation. 28 states have such laws as of 2018. The same union spent over $1 million to defeat Prop 5, which, if passed, would have reduced sentences for nonviolent crimes and created more drug addiction treatment resources in the state. Another $1 million was spent to defeat Prop 66, a measure designed to reduce the number of crimes carrying mandatory life sentences.
Modern Prison Labor
Because compulsory, unpaid prison labor is not prohibited by the United States Constitution, some have argued that prison labor is a continuation of chattel slavery.
However, prisoners are not owned by the state. What’s more, they are generally paid – albeit between $0.12 and $0.40 per hour. Prisoners, when taken as a whole, represent the third largest labor pool in the world. And while they engage in all kinds of labor, it tends to be manually intensive, low-skilled, deeply unpleasant and highly profitable for the corporations who are able to take advantage of it.
The days of prisoners making license plates and breaking rocks are long gone. Employers now receive a substantial tax credit ($2,400) for work-release labor. There’s even a euphemism for private companies who take advantage of prison labor – “Prison insourcing” – and it’s becoming increasingly popular with large firms. The list of organizations with significant prison labor include popular brands like Whole Foods, Target, Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret, McDonald’s, IBM, Honda, Texas Instruments, Boeing, Nordstrom, Intel, Aramark, AT&T, BP, Microsoft, Nike, Macy’s, Wal-Mart and Sprint.
Prison labor is not without its benefits for the prisoners or for society at large. It can be a valuable outlet for prisoners, keeping them from getting into trouble and teaching them new skills. What’s more, many inmates have never had a legal job before. This means they have to learn the most basic aspects of holding down a job – like showing up on time, working with others as a team, and listening to instructions from a supervisor. Many studies show that prison employment leads to reduced recidivism rates.
While companies profit from prison labor, they’re also cleaning up in other ways. JPay, which began as a way to wire money to people on the inside, has seen rapid success with a monopoly on how prisoners’ friends and family can communicate with them inside some state prison systems. All told, JPay had contracts with 21 state correctional facility systems and a number of private facilities as of August 2018. With no paper mail allowed, JPay charges per electronic message – making the company millions, and making prisoners the ultimate captive audience.
The First Step Act: President Trump’s Prison Reform Bill
Few would have expected a Republican president to spearhead prison reform. Then again, President Trump isn’t just any Republican.
Overwhelmingly passed by the Senate – 87 to 12 – in December 2018, the First Step Act is the Trump Administration’s bipartisan victory to save money by reducing prison sentences. While some Republicans feared this vote would reflect as being soft on crime, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Charles E. Grassley stressed that Trump “wants to be tough on crime, but fair on crime.” Shortly after the vote, Trump tweeted that his “job is to fight for ALL citizens, even those who have made mistakes” and that this bill will “provide hope and a second chance, to those who earn it.”
The reform in this criminal justice bill is pretty significant. It reduces mandatory sentences, cutting a collective 53,000 years off existing sentences over the next 10 years. It creates sentencing disparity between powder and crack cocaine, and reduces recidivism rates. And it decreases the “three strikes” penalty for drug felonies from life to 25 years.
But not everyone thinks this reform bill is a “first step” in the right direction. Since it doesn’t apply to local jails or state prisons, those skeptical of this new legislation have pointed out that it only affects about 10 percent of the country’s incarcerated population – hardly a dent. Many also disagree with the fact that this bill will release high-risk inmates and offenders.
Libertarian magazine Reason is in favor of more reform. A 2016 article asked the question “Should Felons Get Their Gun Rights Back?” The argument is roughly the same as that of restoring voting rights to felons: Once people have served their time and been released, society assumes that the ledger has been balanced. If someone cannot be trusted to own firearms once they have been released from prison (presumably because they are dangerous), why are they out on the street and not in a cell?
For those interested in Second Amendment freedom, all of this is important. In a sense, the gun grabbers are getting through our prison-industrial complex what they cannot get through either the legislature or the courts – a disarmed populace.
This article was originally published on Ammo.com.
Build more prisons.
Keep the predators off the street. The vast majority return to prison within a couple of years–after who knows how many more victims.
Keep the drug dealers off the street.
Keep property secure.
Keep one of the penalties for committing a felony the loss firearm ownership privileges for life.
Keep one of the penalties for committing a felony the loss of voting privileges for life. (Ted Cruz said in one of the Republican debates that his father told him that “while all Democrats are not horse thieves, all horse thieves are Democrats.” How many people shooting and being shot on the street corners of Chicago are not going to vote for any candidate who isn’t a Democrat? Democrats are nanny state types who loathe conservatives, evangelicals, and gun owners.
Normal decent people need to be protected from the scum of the Earth. Let Progressives fight the fight for the dregs of society, not SurvivalBlog readers.
The vast majority return to prison within a couple of years–after who knows how many more victims.
Why?
They return to prison because either, 1) they were inclined to commit crime in the first place, 2) their homies enticed them to commit crimes, 3) they returned to drug use which required them to obtain money, or 4) they could not get a job because few employers want to bear the liability that would result from hiring a rapist, burglar, check bouncer, or child molester, etc. Plaintiffs’ lawyers salivate over cases like that.
Let me think about it some more and I will likely be able to add more reasons.
1 – 2 ) Is your Society so broken, that massive Groups of People don´t consider other citicen not longer part of the same community?
4) So irrelevant of the crime, there is no way back, the only Option after considered guilty is crime after crime?
I don’t consider the “massive Groups of People” who are ex-felons to be “part of the same community” I am in or, at least, want to be in. Your mileage may vary.
That’s one reason I read SurvivalBlog. I want to learn as much as I can to protect myself and others once a social cataclysm results in the rule of law not mattering anymore.
Quick question: as with the flood of illegals crossing the border, how would you react if a flood of felons or illegal aliens moved into your neighborhood? Don’t give me the cop out, “Well, I would want to get to know them before I made a decision.” Once they are there, they are there. Moving them out would be a ship that had already sailed.
Yes my mileage does vary, on one could december morning i promised to protect the Right and freedom of all german People, not only Special parts of it.
Illegal Aliens depends on the circumstances, most likely i would inform the proper authorities, hiding criminals i would call the cops
Survivorman99, one’s view of justice depends upon which side of the bars you are sitting on. Every American not incarcerated including you have committed felonies. You just didn’t get caught. That’s the system you want to expand.
ThoDan, as for your point, the majority of those re-incarcerated are done so for victimless crimes. How can you put a person behind bars and fail to cite one victim? How does that work?
Because California won’t spend money on prisons, for example, due to crowding, a federal judge has ordered that the population in each prison be reduced.
Rather than build more prisons to incarcerate prisoners, California simply changed many felonies to misdemeanors and dumped the prisoners on the county jails.
The county jails, due to overcrowding, then began to release prisoners after they spent only a fraction of their sentence in jail. As a result the crime rate involving what had been the lesser felonies has skyrocketed.
Cops often don’t bother with many crimes, knowing that the “system” will do nothing to the perps.
All the while, good people suffer while the activists work for early release and restoration of all rights, particularly voting rights, because it helps Democratic politicians.
And please, don’t tell me to move from California. I may just do that for reasons like this one, but for several other reasons, too. Just remember that California has always been the place where trends start, so earlier than you think, early release and higher crime may be “coming to a theater near you.”
Please provide SurvivalBlog readers with a citation to support your claim that those re-incarcerated go back to prison for victimless crimes. Maybe you are speaking about pot use? See my other comments about the drug trade. If a person is going back to prison for pot use, it is because he violated a condition of his parole that got him out of prison early in the first place.
After that, so as to be certain of what you are describing, then describe for me all of the crimes you regard as being victimless which caused these ex-cons to go back to prison.
Survivormann99, I often agree with your posts. In this case, however…
I am posting part of something I sent yesterday that I think bears repeating.
There is a nationwide program, that started in northern New York state, called the Alternatives to Violence Project. Their purpose is to work with the incarcerated to help them in the words of one man, “Become human again”.
As the article states, many people are incarcerated for reasons having nothing to do with threat to you or me. To call them criminals is to play into the hands of those who want to keep us separate from each other. I know many formerly incarcerated men who are making significant contributions to my community.
To call them “criminals” is to ignore the words of our dear Jesus Christ, Matthew 23, verse 23: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
Matthew 25:40-45 New International Version (NIV)
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
Carry on
Because of the thousands of laws on the books most people commit felonies far more than they realize. All it takes is some overzealous prosecutor to get a bug up his @## to go after you. Admittedly violent people should be locked up but some of these abuses are over the top. Consider these examples especially no. 4 in the following link:
https://mic.com/articles/86797/8-ways-we-regularly-commit-felonies-without-realizing-it#.poxOA8PxX
If you have violent predators that cant be trusted on the streets, I agree there is alot of them, why should we pay for them to be in federal or state daycare for the rest of their lives? #BringBackTheChair
JML,
Okay, I will “out” myself. I was a prosecutor for 8 years. (Unfortunately, telling people that I am a lawyer always changes the dynamics of the conversation.) That’s why I wrote that every public defender I asked about what percentage of his/her clients were not guilty responded that all of their clients had been guilty of something, just not guilty of every charge filed against them.
Conspiracy theorist and minority activists’ claims about the matter fail to address the issue that cops rarely ever waste their time trumping up charges. Does it happen? Yes, but again, rarely. Overcharging criminals, sure. That’s what plea bargaining resolves.
I hired an expert in a case 20 years ago, only to find out he had pled guilty to a felony. Horrified, I asked him about it. He admitted it and said that he only admitted to conspiring to rob an armored car because he wanted to get probation. I replied, “No, you pled guilty to the charge because you wanted to avoid prison.”
I read the article you cited and consider that each and every one of those examples is just some criminal lawyer’s wild fantasy. It makes him feel better about himself and his daily efforts to defeat prosecutors and cops’ efforts. Finding an “overzealous” prosecutor, as you say, who would bother prosecuting someone mentioned in the examples is a possibility, but a small probability. Each one is a “man bites dog” situation.
Is your POV more ibjective than the other side?
Isn´t the Police more or less working for you if investibating crime?
Is Overcharging criminals not a false accusation?
Is my point of view more objective? That would be for someone else to determine. In all fairness, how would I be able to say?
The police did not work for me. A prosecutor depends on the police, however.
You need to distinguish between overcharging and falsely charging. I don’t want to be too flippant, but overcharging may include an armed robbery charge, with red light violations, and parking violations. The prosecutor will not usually focus on the serious charge and make sure that the perp gets enough time.
“Back in the day,” I prosecuted a teenager who engaged in a cross-county chase. He was charged with several counts of Wanton Endangerment, one of which involved trying to drive a cop car into a huge drainage channel by slamming it when the cop pulled up next to him. The cops charged him with blowing 12 red lights. The cops knew and I knew that all of them couldn’t have been red, but they were the minor issues in the case. He pled out, so I never had to get to the issue of how many were yellow or green when he blasted down city streets at 70 mph.
I could never have been a cop and put up with the crap they have to deal with. Watch “Cops” or “Live PD.” No wonder they become jaded and cynical. A big reason I stopped being a prosecutor was because the perps just kept coming and coming. I really wasn’t “making a difference.”
Don’t get me wrong. Some prosecutors are charlatans at times, e.g., the Duke University lacrosse team case. (He was disbarred later after the case was dismissed.) Many people in this country get better results at trial if they have great defense attorneys and lots of money. O.J. is a prime example. The poet Robert Frost once said something to the effect of, “A jury trial is where 12 people listen to all the evidence and then decide who has the best lawyer.” More idiots on the jury result in better chances at trial, too.
As I have read the comments here, I have to say that I am surprised that so many SurvivalBlog readers have such a negative attitude about cops. I would expect this to be more common on an Antifa or Black Lives Matter web site, and I am sorry to see it here.
I have witnessed prosecuting attorneys “coaching the witness”, telling the police what to say during trial to make their actions comport with the prosecutions legal arguments. Cops lie all the time. I have been on the receiving end of it. Who do you think will be enforcing mag bans in New Jersey and elsewhere?? What about that oath??? When push comes to shove police will violate the rights of the citizenry. Ever hear about that brave, righteous hero Lon Horiuchi? That hero stud FBI agent who shot an unarmed woman in the face while she was holding a baby in her arms?? Was he arrested and charged with murder?? This is a prime example of why many law abiding patriots don’t like law enforcement. Who do you think is importing the majority of the heroin from Afghanistan??? Ever research Mena Arkansas?? The powers that be own the prisons and the drug importation business. They make money off of both ends of American drug use and the people that are sent to prison. Who owns these private prisons?? The same group of people who are pushing America into a police state. Granted, I have 2 good friends that are true peace officers. We shoot guns together, train together etc. But they know the truth. They are, as far as I know, good honorable men. Not the scum that are stealing form Americans over unproven asset forfeiture seizure laws. Survival blog readers have valid reasons for the way they feel. Wake up man
Can you blame us for being so jaded about cops when we hear stories weekly about cops shooting family dogs because they can, or assaulting women, or shooting the mentally ill in the back, and the cops get away with it? Or how about siccing K-9’s on people who are complying and letting the dog maul the person just because the cops have the power to do so? If we saw more equal justice among the blue, maybe some of us would be willing to change our minds. For now, some of us teach our children: Cops are NOT your friends. The cops are going to have to prove their goodness, one at a time.
Thank you!
I believe there is much wisdom in the romulan proverb, the truth is a Sword with three edges yours, mine and the truth, also that everyone lives in a bubble.
No way to watch it, i got a few in the Family and i ´ve experienced also cops who misused the trust and authority given to them.
This comment is offered as a repeat of my first section comment, because I failed at copy & paste originally. =
There is an enormous amount of information about criminal behavior on the Internet. Prisons, jails, and parole officers are ~ how our society tries to protect its citizens. … Here’s part of one article in WebMD. =
*******************************************************************
~Sociopath vs. Psychopath: What’s the Difference? By Kara Mayer Robinson ~ =
You may have heard people call someone else a “psychopath” or a “sociopath.” But what do those words really mean?
You won’t find the definitions in mental health’s official handbook, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Doctors don’t officially diagnose people as psychopaths or sociopaths. They use a different term instead: antisocial personality disorder.
Most experts believe psychopaths and sociopaths share a similar set of traits. People like this have a poor inner sense of right and wrong. They also can’t seem to understand or share another person’s feelings. But there are some differences, too.
Do They Have a Conscience?
A key difference between a psychopath and a sociopath is whether he has a conscience, the little voice inside that lets us know when we’re doing something wrong, says L. Michael Tompkins, EdD. He’s a psychologist at the Sacramento County Mental Health Treatment Center.
A psychopath doesn’t have a conscience. If he lies to you so he can steal your money, he won’t feel any moral qualms, though he may pretend to. He may observe others and then act the way they do so he’s not “found out,” Tompkins says.
“A sociopath typically has a conscience, but it’s weak. He may know that taking your money is wrong, and he might feel some guilt or remorse, but that won’t stop his behavior.
Both lack empathy, the ability to stand in someone else’s shoes and understand how they feel. But a psychopath has less regard for others, says Aaron Kipnis, PhD, author of The Midas Complex. Someone with this personality type sees others as objects he can use for his own benefit.
They’re Not Always Violent
In movies and TV shows, psychopaths and sociopaths are usually the villains who kill or torture innocent people. In real life, some people with antisocial personality disorder can be violent, but most are not. Instead they use manipulation and reckless behavior to get what they want.
“At worst, they’re cold, calculating killers,” Kipnis says. Others, he says, are skilled at climbing their way up the corporate ladder, even if they have to hurt someone to get there. … (The rest at WebMD and the information on the Internet.)
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Me: = Many articles by advocates for releasing prisoners, often do NOT discuss underlying factors (a ~~>moral compass), that causes the behavior leading to Jail-Time.
And yes, a brain and a conscience can be psychologically ‘beat up’; ~ just like it’s possible to physically beat up your car with a sledge hammer. … At some point, only God can fix things with some people (at least with present day knowledge).
Stay with SurvivalBlog for common sense information. [About surviving in our modern world, wherever you are living or traveling.]
Many other information outlets can make even Mogadishu, Somalia seem like a place of perfect sanity, and the perfect vacation spot for wearing a skimpy bathing suit 24/7.
I can’t help but wonder if some members of the Trump family have a vested interest in reducing prison sentences.
“But not everyone thinks this reform bill is a “first step” in the right direction. Since it doesn’t apply to local jails or state prisons, those skeptical of this new legislation have pointed out that it only affects about 10 percent of the country’s incarcerated population – hardly a dent.”
President Trump can only sign bills into law that affect Federal Gooberment. He doesn’t have the right to affect state prisons and local jails. If you want that kind of reform, contact and lobby with your state governor and local mayor.
My deceased uncle was a Marine, deputy sheriff (patrolman, riot squad, sniper, detective), NRA lobbyist (in later years) and general law and order guy. Years ago I remember a conversation where he expressed his disgust to me regarding DA prosecution choices. He felt that low level offenders were threatened, railroaded and in general overcharged by DA’s strictly to increase their conviction rates for reelection. In his opinion, more serious criminals were frequently handled with kid gloves or not seriously prosecuted at all because they had the means to defend themselves effectively in court. They were riskier to prosecute because they had lawyers who might just be able to beat the DA’s office in court and the DAs did in fact hesitate to prosecute in many cases. His opinion based on being in law enforcement.
I watched a very interesting show a while back on over-incarceration and the private prison industry. I listened to an elected Sheriff in Louisiana describe the financial benefit of incarceration (particularly in private jails) in his parish/county. Essentially he received a certain amount of money for each prisoner and depending on how each one was incarcerated he could in fact turn a profit, particularly by handing off a prisoner to a private firm, and use that profit in his department. It was a similar story as the civil asset forfeiture stories you hear.
I don’t know that a DA pushing his conviction rates or a Sheriff pumping up incarceration rates are necessarily evil people. They are just responding to the incentives of the system they live in and doing the best they can with what they have to do their job and keep their job. The trick is in the incentives.
This is always going to be a balancing act but I think Trump might be on the right course with this legislation. And while I am not an unreserved Ayn Rand fan (I think we are our brother’s keepers to some extent) I think her commentary on the effects of excess laws are spot on.
All the stupid “tough on crime” bullshit has led to this aspect of our police state. All a load of bull just like “cops are the good guys”.
Let he that is without a felony among you, let him first cast a stone at prisoners who have done harm to no one.
Please provide examples of “harm to no one.” That would be helpful.
Are you old enough to remember Paul Harvey and his daily radio broadcasts? He did two each day, and one would involve an anecdote that always ended, “And now you know the rest of the story.” The lawyer in that article that was linked gave several examples of situations where people committed felonies in strange situations. Maybe, but I fully expect that he eliminated facts that were important. Lawyers are advocates for their clients. “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.”
A personal anecdote: I was once involved in defending a client who had been in an automobile accident. It is always the subject of inquiry in a civil case whether any party or witness has committed a felony, particularly one that involves moral turpitude. Being convicted of the latter indicates a pre-disposition to lie.
When I asked my client whose upper body below the chin was completely tattooed about this incident, my client admitted that when he was young, he had done one year in a federal prison for destruction of government property. Fortunately, this was only a misdemeanor conviction. (He had committed other minor offenses earlier and later did time for serious drug dealing, as well.)
He told me that as a young man he had gone with others to an area to shoot firearms. He fell asleep while riding passenger (which, in his case, likely meant “passed out.” When he woke up, he believed that he was where he was supposed to shoot. He began firing at a pine tree. A ranger came and arrested him because the area was posted regarding the shooting of firearms, and the ranger saw him blasting a pine tree with a shotgun, i.e., Destroying Government Property.
When he got to court, the prosecutor said, “Aw, gee, what is this case doing here?” He referred him to an informal program. It required him to complete a urine test. If all went well, he would have the case dismissed in a year.
My client admitted to me that he ignored repeated calls and letters that requested that he appear for testing. He refused, knowing that he was using so many illegal drugs that he could never pass the test. After a point, he was arrested and spent one year in federal prison, all for shooting a pine tree. That must be some sort of Guinness Book of Records accomplishment.
I suppose that some bleeding heart will feel sympathy for someone who fired a gun in good faith where he thought he had a right to be. At least that was his story. (Has any parent who found pot in his son’s bedroom not been told that he was simply holding it for a friend?) My client had clearly damaged government property, although it was a trivial matter. The ranger may have been acting as a result of repeated vandalism caused by yahoos who misbehaved in his park. I really don’t know.
Had his record been “clean” when the tree blasting charges were filed, the prosecutor may well have dismissed the charge outright, but I can only speculate. All I know is that the prosecutor seemed to act reasonably and my client was dumb enough to blow the opportunity. Continuing his heavy drug use was more important to him than the threat of a year in federal prison.
I wonder how the lawyer in the linked article would describe that incident in an effort to make himself look like a White Knight trying to save humanity. (Oops. Is it still okay to say “White Knight” anymore?)
By the way, and last of all, I obtained a defense verdict for him which he richly deserved in that case.
Survivorman99, you asked for examples of “harm to no one.” How about the more than 58,000 unborn who have been murdered since Jan. 1 by their mothers and their ‘doctors’ (many of whom took the Hippocratic Oath to ‘do no harm’). What harm have these unborn done and whom have they harmed? Would you represent these unborn to seek justice for their murders?
Roger D,
Are you serious? You said, “…[L]et him first cast a stone at prisoners who have done harm to no one.” A little logic and reason here, please, Roger. How did we get to the abortion issue? You shifted the discussion away from convicts who have committed felonies to the abortion issue. Please do your best and try to follow a logical line of thought.
You did not give me an example of anyone in prison who has “done harm to no one.” Maybe if you think about it long enough you will be able to think of one and I will agree. Until then, as they said in the original “Star Wars,” Roger, “Stay on target! Stay on target!”
You then go even further, asking if I would represent these unborn in an effort to seek justice for their murders. Again, are you serious? I am against abortion, but I would not waste the filing fee because any judge in this country would toss the suit out of court at the first opportunity. The law is what it is. I am not a Supreme Court Justice. Absent the passage of a new Constitutional amendment approved by a 2/3 vote of both the Senate and the House (not likely), that is then ratified by 38 states (again, not likely), it will take a new Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Words to live by, Roger: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”
One prominent example of someone who has done no harm to anyone: Martin Armstrong. He spent seven years in prison for contempt of court, because he refused to sell the US government his computer program, which was quite accurate at predicting the future (the reason he had previously had a couple trillion (trillion with a t) dollars under financial management). They did take his computer, but it melted.
He had harmed no one. Fortunately, he had children who took the case to the Supreme Court. The Court required that the government actually bring him to trial, at which point he was released. He served the longest sentence for contempt of court in American history.
During his time in prison, he helped many of the prisoners with legal matters. His own estimate was that about a third of them were innocent of the crime they had been convicted of.
I never heard of Martin Armstrong. Roger D commented about “prisoners who have done harm to no one.”
Let’s see about whether Martin Armstrong fits that description.
I checked Wikipedia. It is hardly the gold standard for accuracy, but here is what I found in the second sentence: “He was convicted in 1999 of cheating investors out of seven hundred million dollars and hiding fifteen million dollars in assets from regulators.[1]”
Later in the article it says, “Armstrong was indicted in 1999 and ordered by Judge Richard Owen to turn over fifteen million dollars in gold bars and antiquities bought with the fund’s money; the list included bronze helmets and a bust of Julius Caesar.[10][11] Armstrong produced some of the items but claimed the others were not in his possession; this led to several contempt of court charges brought by the SEC and the CFTC, for which he served seven years in jail until he reached a plea bargain with federal prosecutors.”
Are these facts what Paul Harvey called “the rest of the story?”
I don’t think that it will serve SurvivalBlog readers well for you and I to go into the details of Armstrong’s history, and I simply don’t care to start that debate. Please, let’s not go off into the weeds about it. The SurvivalBlog article was not offered for the purpose of making Martin Armstrong a poster boy for prison reform.
Frankly, I expected a pothead reader to post a comment saying that smoking pot did no one harm. Of course, there is an enormous number of studies that show that heavy pot use causes serious changes to the brain, especially in adolescents, and none of these changes are good.
Beyond that, most of the pot sold in this country has come from the likes of El Chapo. Last year, 33,000 Mexicans died in drug-related violence. How is that not “harming anyone?” But the average pothead is only concerned with getting his pot.
Beyond that, potheads don’t go to prison for simply smoking pot. They go there for selling large quantities of pot, or having large quantities on hand that are far beyond anyone’s “need” for personal usage. The sellers and users are involved in a trade that results in serious acts of violence in this country, too. Watch “Murder Mountain” on Netflix, a brand new documentary about pot-related violence in Humboldt County, CA.
I share the concern of “Rural County cop” about the anti-cop comments posted yesterday and today. Frankly, I was shocked. I expected a law and order crowd on this blog. I expect that many have had unpleasant run-ins with the law in their past and bear a grudge. Like a friend once said to me, “Every thief thinks that everyone is trying to steal from him.”
Regarding JW’s report that Fraud Artist Martin Armstrong estimated that 1/3 of those in prison were innocent, I can only say, consider the source. Frankly, if you ask every cop, corrections officer, prison official and parole officer, they will tell you that everyone in prison claims he is innocent. That may be a little hyperbole, but the vast majority do claim to be innocent. Sociopaths and psychopaths have no concerns for the truth. For starters, just ask O.J. and a long list of serial killers who will tell you that “they got the wrong guy.”
Admittedly, as somewhat of a tangent here, but about the harm caused to others by those in the drug trade in prison, Mexico with some of the strictest gun control in the world, has the most dangerous city in the world, or close to it, Juarez. Across the Rio Grande is El Paso, the safest city in the US with a population over 500,000. How many Texans are unarmed. Irony? Let the anti-gun lobby explain that.
“The whole Good Cop / Bad Cop question can be disposed of much more decisively. […] We need only consider the following:
(1) A cop’s (commenter’s note: prosecutor’s) job is to enforce the laws, all of them;
(2) Many of the laws are manifestly unjust, and some are even cruel and wicked;
(3) Therefore every cop (commenter’s note: prosecutor’s) has to agree to act as an enforcer for laws that are manifestly unjust or even cruel and wicked.
There are no good cops (commenter’s note: prosecutors) .”
— Robert Higgs
“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”
– Thomas Jefferson
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229
It’s almost humorous to see a former prosecutor trying to defend his past behavior, yet tyranny, it any of its forms is never funny. Our modern “justice” system is anything but just. The previous and following comments by others are in reference to the Prison-Industrial Complex. The PIC doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it is fed by the Law Enforcement Prosecution Judicial Complex (sorry, poor coined phrase). When the system went from a Peace Officer (local county Sheriff) protecting Constitutional Rights model to a Law Enforcement model – that’s when it went off the rails. Everyone in the LEPJ Complex (cops, cop unions, prosecutors, judges and now, unfortunately county Sheriffs….) has a vested
interest in keeping the machine running otherwise their budgets are cut, bonuses aren’t paid, elections for higher office are not won – yadda yadda… It’s no longer about justice but about results and that means $$s extorted (or outrightly stolen via asset forfeiture laws) and people in prison.
Look, I am not pollyanish to believe there are not bad people out there where society would be better off if they were eradicated – not caged on the taxpayers’ dime. I worked a trade jobs and white collar jobs with some truly evil, if not demon possessed men. Reading the federal crime statistics are pretty telling about demographics, time served (or not) for violent crimes, etc. My position is I do not need a cop to protect me from violent crime. I can do that on my own thank you and if you shoot the from far enough away you don’t even have to bury the body.
And to your statements regarding pot; 1) you are woefully incorrect in that the only “potheads” that go to prison are the dealers regardless of your anecdotal experience, 2) the violence in the drug trade is due to profit margins based on the illegality (e.g., why is their no concomitant violence in alcohol manufacturing/distribution post prohibition?) and 3) it is a plant and where is the Constitutional authority prohibiting me from eating, smoking or rubbing its oil on my aching knees? Supreme Court Justices Renquist, O’Connor and Thomas state Federal Drug Laws, visa vis the CSA, are un-Constitutional. It’s Federal usurpation and color of law no less than I declaring Jan 25 Anarchy Day and arresting and caging anyone on my street who doesn’t celebrate. My anecdotal evidence is that the majority of the people I imbibed with in my adolescence (14 years old) up to and including the ones I imbibe with now – are to a man and woman, well adjusted and highly productive members of society.
I am done, I really should erase this and move on because changing your mind is likely nigh impossible. I only submit it for the possible edification of others.
One thing that can and should be done is to bring back and enforce capital punishment for the crimes of rape and murder. One reason that mass killings happen is that murderers are not convicted and executed SWIFTLY. This is NOT by accident. It is part of a PLAN by the destroyers of western civilization to wreak havoc on society by making punishment of criminals INEFFECTIVE. This weakens the citizens’ confidence in the system and makes its’ overthrow much easier and more likely.
Swift execution and punishment of crime in general has been sabotaged for over 100 years by the left and the communists in the legislative and judiciary branches of government, as well as the executive branch and is one reason that there will be a civil war to rid our country of all communists, in government and in the country. I dread this war, but it is necessary, and it is coming.
If those right are going to be given back, earn them back.
A starting point for me is:
The time served is equal to the time it takes to get your rights back.
I’ve been a rural county cop in western Montana for almost 12 years now and an NCO in the US Army Infantry prior to that. I’ve been a loyal survival blog reader and even had an article published here, but I’m disappointed and dismayed at the increasing anti-cop rhetoric being spewed in the comments. I’ve been pondering this for some time now, and regrettably I feel this community is no longer aligned with my own core values. I have gained much valuable information at this site over the years, but I don’t care to be demonized by people who have no real clue about the outstanding job most first responders do for their communities. And by the way Craig Davis, cops ARE the good guys and we’ll still respond when you need us, despite what you think about us. To all others in this survival blog community, I shall miss the shared knowledge, beliefs, and values…..I’m out.
I am sad to see anyone leave SurvivalBlog over issues like this. Yes, things were simpler back when we didn’t have comments. But these days there is no way that a blog can be competitive and have viable search engine rankings without them. So if I were to shut down the Comments section, the blog would end up on page 2+ of web search results. It would then gradually wither and die, because we’d be essentially invisible to any new readers searching on words like “survival” and “preparedness.”
If anyone finds that the comments posted are disturbing or aggravating, then all that I can recommend is: Just skip even looking at any comments AT ALL. Totally ignore them. Just read the main posted articles and columns themselves. Sincerely – Jim Rawles
I am a retired cop . I find some of the comments here to be silly , but some people are just… silly.
I like this site. There is some interesting stuff . I don’t read everything but I learned long ago that you can skip past articles real easily. No reason to give up on the site.
Rawles tries to get it right . He made a post once about police procedure that was incorrect. Sent him an email , which he answered and quickly corrected himself .
Try that with a politician , or frankly even a cop.
Just because a few yahoos want to bash cops is no reason to leave. They haven’t had the privilege of walking in your shoes.
THINK MAN!!! Cops enforce unjust, unfair laws and court decisions all the time, that is why they are not loved. EXAMPLE ..A woman commits adultery on her loyal hardworking husband, betraying her children in the process. They get divorced. The man gets raped in court. Getting to pay alimony to the woman who betrayed him. Getting to pay child support to the kids he doesn’t have custody of. She uses easily obtained restraining orders to kick him out of the house he has worked so hard for. She moves her boyfriend in the house he paid for. He is barely surviving financially. He looses his job and goes to jail for failing to pay money to his ex whore of a wife. The cop is the one who enforces this pure, evil injustice upon the man. Your choice, when you choose to work for a corrupt system that has unjust laws, then you are acting in an evil capacity. Granted some of the work you do is good, but you still work for a corrupt system that profits off of the American people.
Did all of these unfortunate incidents happen to your “friend?”
Are you serious? You expect every cop to read a divorce file, and to review and agree with a judge’s ruling before he executes a lawful order? Seriously, “III?”
At best, your ire and bitterness should be directed to family law reform in the legislature. Your rant has nothing to do with the subject matter of the article, prison reform. Luke Skywalker, “Stay on target!” “Stay on target!”
@Rural County Cop
I think both sides are missing the points of the other. The real problem stems from the fact that each side (cops on one side, average everyday citizen on the other) comes at the resolution of the problem from different points of view.
A cop approaching a situation that requires the appearance of a cop is looking for a resolution that de-escalates the situation as quickly as possible with as few as possible people getting hurt. Justice and fairness do not play into most of his/her decisions. Their goal is to get everyone out of the situation as quickly as possible because the longer the conflict goes on, the more likely it will escalate to further violence.
A normal person is looking at the conflict from the perspective of fairness and justice. They expect the cop to execute justice in a fair manner.
The cop does not see justice as his/her goal. That is what the rest of the justice system is there for. Their job is to enforce the law and diffuse the situation. They are more than happy to punt the situation into the court system and they don’t actually have the authority to make decisions of who is in the right unless it is apparent that a law is being broken right in front of them.
It also doesn’t help that people watch too many movies and too much TV where things like that happen.
A lawyer friend once told me years ago: “Do not confuse our justice system with actual justice.”
A long time ago, a cop was a peace officer who often helped both parties come to a peaceful resolution. Since the move to the Prussian form of “law enforcer”, that is no longer a function of their job. Every once in a while, you find someone who excels at their job and actually performs the job of a peace officer, but those times are not often. People have changed as well. People seem more willing to escalate things far beyond a fist fight for the slightest provocation.
Times. They are different now.
I would have to agree with both JWR and HL. I also feel your pain on some of the comments. I know I made some harsh comments on cops in one post, but I’m part of the justice system and see cops day in and day out in a court of law. On the face of it, attorneys and cops are like water and oil. I know I had my fair share of cops during a court appearance stretch the truth, tamper with evidence, and improperly handle evidence. That’s what us attorneys are there for to ensure the justice system is fair to the accused in front of the State! Having said that, it’s just a job we both have and we must go home each night safe and sound. I wouldn’t let this bother you and just go about your business.
Hope that helps from an attorney!
All the LEOs I know are good guys, sure there is a bad apple in the bunch, there is in any profession. Yes, I am sure there are examples of people incarcerated that should not be. But, in my limited experience, listening to my family members who were cops or deputy sheriffs, they arrest the same 5% over and over. These people need to be incarcerated. Case in point, many years ago, my brother was a cop for a department in a county outside a major city in a blue state. He worked for them about 20 years, he kept a little book of all the criminals he put away and kept track of them when they got out on parole. When I visited him, I used to ride along with him. One day he said, “XYZ” just got out of prison Friday, let’s see what he is up to. So; we waited down the street from his house. About 10am, he came out of his garage and drove down the street, we slowly following him, until he ran a stop sign, and my brother pulled him over. The criminal, immediately started whining, as he recognized my brother and said, ‘why are you always hassling me’? My brother responded, ‘pop the trunk’, when he did, there were all kinds of electronics he had burglarized from people’s homes over the weekend. This guy was a career criminal burglar. When my brother asked him “You were given a 2nd chance to come clean, and start a new life, why return to crime?” He responded, “this is my job”. This criminal had no intention of becoming a model citizen. No, he did not commit ‘violent crime’, but if you have ever been burglarized, you know that sinking feeling, and how vulnerable you feel. There are many people that are incarcerated that should never be allowed out. Every case is different, so I am not casting a net on all, but until you are a victim, or spent time interviewing the victims (over and over again) your perspective is different on all these ‘victimless criminals’ incarcerated. Ask a parent who son overdosed and died on Fentanyl if a drug dealer is a ‘victimless criminal’. I understand that every person is responsible for their own actions, as in ingesting illegal drugs. But that also includes the drug dealers, whether big-time or small-time. Death follows these people, and they are not the ones you want in society.
To Rural county cop: You should not let the comments of others effect change in how you gather info. I don’t have any problems with the way my area is policed. In fact, I have become acquainted with our small town’s police. I think that is important and I believe good police should be supported. It is valuable, I believe, to keep an open dialogue. I value the comments of all the police and military on this blog. I hope you reconsider, sir.
I have yet to understand why many in this country want to insist that we are a Christian nation when we refuse to follow God’s written laws. There were no prisons in Israel. Crime was dealt with swiftly and justly. Capitol punishment by stoning was a great deterrent and had a way of thinning the gene pool of those predisposed to violent crime. Anyone accusing another person of a crime falsely had to suffer the sentence he would have had the accused suffer.
Maybe we are wiser than YHWH and our laws are better than His. I kinda have my doubts though.
AFAIK capital punishment was rather seldom used in Ancient Israel.
He who is without guilt should throw the first stone
Could you explain to me what AFAIK means?
Good point about it seldom being used. I said it was a great deterrent.
That is an Internet slang acronym for “As Far As I Know”
Thank you, and thank you for the forum.
Yes, because otherwise the court was considered cruel
I don’t think so. They had laws given to them by God to follow and woe to them if they didn’t.
Deut. 16:18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment.
19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
God is a jealous God. If things aren’t done His way people end up with major problems….like a prison industrial complex.
Deut. 1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.
6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
11 And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.
I posted as best as it is “known” to me of the history of this time
We’re all on a learning curve ThoDan.
RE: Rural County Cop: Don’t leave because of stupid comments, every website I look at has comments I don’t agree with. Everyone has a right to their opinion, it does not mean that their opinion is valid. As far as JML saying that everyone has committed a felony, I checked the link, and NO, I have not committed a Felony. Sorry, but I have not flushed anybody’s pot down the toilet, etc. Speaking of LEO’s and the ones I know. If you are not friends with your local sheriff, you should be. I regularly meet and text with the sheriff in my small county. Who do you think stands between you and the Feds? Have you given your sheriff this book? https://www.amazon.com/County-Sheriff-Americas-Last-Hope/dp/B002PKCMFO
When I offered my sheriff a copy, he laughed, “Oh I bought that myself”. Make friend with local law enforcement, if you live in a rural area, they are not the enemy.
Out of the immense respect I have for Mr. Rawles, I will attempt to follow his advice and focus only on the article content of the blog and forego getting pulled into the sometimes petty and vindictive comments section. Survival Blog and Mr. Rawles serve as a guide and mentor in these chaotic times for these United States. I hope we in this Survival Blog community can remember that while we may have opposing views, and are passionate about those views, we can still respect each other as people in the same life boat so to speak. I agree with Voltaire, “I may not agree with your opinion sir, but I’ll fight to the death for your right to have it”.
Does anyone on this site really trust the government so much that they honestly want to give them the power and authority to legally kill citizens?
Wow, that’s a scary thought!
Where to start?
First of all the “Prussian form “ of law enforcement( which I have never heard of ) assumes the cops are little robots , uninterested in justice.
That’s cr*p.
Cops make a decision every five minutes and for all but a few , the question of Justice guides them. Do I give someone a ticket for going through a stop sign at 3 mph ? 20 mph ?
Another poster informs us that cops arrest people whose wives have committed adultry. What he leaves out is these arrests are the result of a warrant , issued by a judge. A warrant starts out by saying “ to any peace officer , I command you to arrest ________. “
An arrest warrrant is not a suggestion , it’s a command. If you have a problem with being arrested, take it up with a judge.
Yet another poster points out that people were stoned to death in Israel of old. There are several countries that still do this. Anyone seeking this type of justice is encouraged to emigrate , although as a Christian , you might find yourself on the wrong end of the rocks.
@ Frank C…..
From the context of your reply I am assuming that your a cop. A cop that claims he is guided by justice. Well, a couple of questions. One is whose justice? What are your guide posts? Who is your ultimate authority?
You say that an arrest warrant is not a suggestion, it’s a command. Like robots, are we to follow every command of man then?
Rape was a crime punishable by stoning in Israel of old. If someone was to forcibly rape your wife or daughter are you thinking that stoning would be too harsh a punishment? In Israel of old you would be the first to cast a stone at the perpetrator. Would you rather walk away than administering this type of justice? Would justice be served if they are only required to do a little jail time then be released to do it again?
If we are too harsh on rape or other violent crimes maybe we should all immigrate to Sweden. Looks like they have it figured out, huh?
@Frank
If you’ve never heard of it, how are you able to make such a statement about it?
I’d encourage you to study a bit of history since by your admission, you are not familiar with it. For your starting reference, you can look for the change that took place when cops ceased walking beat and became emergency responders. Yes, I know, there are still places that cops walk the beat and have relationships with everyone on their beat, but that is not the norm. Far from it. Mostly, cops respond to 911 calls, especially in rural areas. I can’t remember the last time that a state police pulled into our yard just to shoot the breeze. Yet I remember that being the case when I was a child. I remember when a cop pulled me over when I first got my license for speeding. I was irrigating our field and had decided to go see a movie. I explained to the cop and he gave me an escort home and helped shovel dirt in the breach that was flooding the neighbors. Yeah, those were the days.
It’s not all their fault. People are different too, just like I said. We live in a litigious society, so there is that, but people have far less respect for cops than they used to. I’m sure that relationship plays into it quite heavily, but I see parents teaching their children disrespect for cops as well.
The Prussian system of law enforcement is about “enforcing” not about “peacekeeping”. You may not like it, I certainly don’t, but that is where we are at.
As a firefighter and EMT, I happen to have relationships with the local and county cops (along with the State patrol officers in our area) and that relationship most certainly does change how they react to me vs some random motorist or homeowner.
But the modern cops interest in justice in a traffic stop or even the enforcement of a warrant is limited by his training and his department policies. In a domestic response, his goal of “Justice” is to diffuse the situation and push it into the legal system. If no one dies or is hurt, his version of justice is satisfied. I know of no cop that will take the time on a domestic call to decide who is right and who is wrong in the underlying problem. They simply keep violence from occurring and refer to others. if they suspect something is not right mentally, they call the EMTs for a mental check (pushing the immediate concern into the medical/legal system).
There are many reasons we are where we are and the people bear as much responsibility as the cops in that. Kindness is so forgotten that when it happens, it’s actually newsworthy. It’s a sad state of affairs, but without a true moral compass guiding the majority, it’s where we will continue to be.
I am unable to reply to Leonidas and Carol’s reply to my posting because the button is missing.
There was a college student who skipped anatomy classes, so the story goes, because he found out that the professor always asked only one question on the final exam, “Describe the anatomy of an elephant.” At the end of the semester, he memorized the information. When he opened the exam, to his horror, he found that his requirement was to “Describe the anatomy of a snake.” He panicked, but then calmed down and began to write. “An elephant is a large gray mammal whose most distinguishing feature is its trunk. Its trunk, in many ways, resembles a snake. Now about a snake…”
People have ranted here about prosecutors and cops. Leonidas claims that he has heard cops being coached. Leonidas mentions that he has had a run-in with the law, so his objectivity must be judged. “Coaching” is a term that should be defined. Coaching is quite different than telling a cop to lie. Leonidas has not shared exactly what his brush with the law involved. He then goes off on a rant about Ruby Ridge (FBI), Mena, Arkansas (CIA), and Afghanistan (allegedly LEO). Carol wants to talk about cops siccing dogs on people.
Would someone please tell me what these comments have to do with the subject matter of prison reform and such? Leonidas and Carol are “describing the anatomy of a snake.”
I detest magazine bans, but Leonidas believes that every cop in New Jersey must act as his own Supreme Court Justice. If every conservative cop resigned because he didn’t like a specific law, the only ones left would be Purple Kool-Aid drinking liberals, only concerned about political correctness. As another reader pointed out, it is not their job to interpret the law. Remember that famous scene in “The Fugitive”? Harrison Ford stands at the end of a tunnel and yells to Tommy Lee Jones, “I didn’t kill my wife.” Jones replies, “I don’t care.” Jones had a job to do and he was hellbent on doing it.
If you read my comments to this article, I conceded that there were rogue prosecutors and rogue cops. They are not the norm, so that is why I call them rogue. Mr. Latimer wrote, “A lawyer friend once told me years ago: “Do not confuse our justice system with actual justice.” Spot on. The so-called Halls of Justice across the country should be called “The Halls of Legal Results.” It is an unwarranted compliment to call them Halls of Justice. If justice results it is often a happy coincidence, not the required outcome.
Every lawyer has heard the expression, “If you want justice, wait for the afterlife.” The fact is that when people are involved, imperfect results are often the case.
So I am hoping now that commenters get back to the original topic of the SurvivalBlog contributor and focus on the issue of prison reform, rather than to go off into the weeds concerning their personal grudges against cops and prosecutors.
You made the comment at the end of your first post that you don’t understand the reasons or origins of the negative view of Cops from many survival blog readers. You were given a prime example of the type of behavior, the murder of Vicky Weaver, that gives people a reason to hate law enforcement. Then in true attorney fashion you dodge or make light of a woman being shot in the face by and FBI sniper, by calling it a “Ruby Ridge Rant”. You avoid the fact that the murderer was never charged. Government workers, whether judges, [prosecuting] attorneys, or law enforcement protect their own. You are proving my point. The New Jersey police that are willing to enforce an unconstitutional magazine ban are willing to take a big step to disarm the American people. History shows that when governments disarm the population, bad things happen to the population. Stalin’s law enforcement agents that helped murder tens of millions of people were just “enforcing the law”. That is where your line of reasoning winds up. A cop doesn’t need to be a Supreme Court Justice to understand the gravity of what he is doing and how wrong it is. Cops enforce unjust laws and abuse their power all the time. That is why people don’t like many of them. So keep putting attorney spin on it and avoiding the issues. Go tell the Weaver family how great the justice system is when a murderer under an FBI badge is not punished. Stalin’s thugs that murdered the populace “were just hell bent on doing their jobs”. We all know where gun bans and magazine bans and everything else is likely to wind up. If you wish to defend and excuse evil then just come out and do it, instead of obfuscating and twisting the issues.
The reason that our attitudes towards police is relevant is related to the reason that we are interested in survivalblog. The fact is that in our current environment, any one of us can be arrested at any time, depending on where we happen to be, who we are with, and any number of circumstances. In some locations, carrying a weapon of any kind can get you arrested, beaten, and charged with several criminal offenses cough*Maryland*cough. Or you may be overheard voicing an unpopular view about guns or politics or wear a red MAGA hat and be attacked by a college-aged self-righteous berserker and suddenly become involved with law enforcement, courts, and lawyers. Or you could be arrested for one of the dozens of unknown-to-you laws that we all break every day. Or you could just be unlucky and run into a cop who feels that you look or act suspicious. It is one of the things that we must be ready to overcome and survive.
As I have posted before, I have lived in places where the police are crooked. Sorry to offend some of you, but it is true. Prosecutors and judges too. In the place where I live now, the sheriff’s department is well-respected and as far as I know, completely honest and aboveboard. The local cops are only doing the jobs AS THEY ARE TOLD TO DO THEM by the people who pay them. If your local cops are crooked, their employers know it, and approve. In most cases, you cannot do anything about bad cops except move away. You cannot fight them, and you cannot get them fired, but there are many places where the police are honest and good. Find such a place and move there.